Wlodzimierz Staniewski and the Phenomenon of “Gardzienice”

This book offers a broad, comprehensiveoverview of the contemporary state of the Gardzienice theatrical company and its evolution. Their most recent production, The Wedding, is taken as a focal point for a retrospective discussion on the company’s development. Premiered at the festival celebrating the 40th anniversary of the company, The Wedding echoes most of the major achievements of Staniewski’s stage language and his capacity of exploring and developing the performative potential of liveness. This study consists of essays by prominent practitioners and theoreticians of theatre, director’s notes, conversations with Staniewski and other company members, selected archival materials and substantial visual coverage. It promises to be of great interest to students and scholars across the fields of theatre and performance studies.

Introduction PART I: Staniewski speaks: in dialogue 1. Crazyfication: a conversation with Wlodzimierz Staniewski: day one 2. The fertile land: a conversation with Wlodzimierz Staniewski: day two 3. A robber’s oath: a conversation with Wlodzimierz Staniewski: day three PART II: Staniewski speaks: in monologue, lectures and programme notes Introducing the voice of Wlodzimierz Staniewski Director’s notes Essays PART III: Gardzienice: associates speak Cultivating humanities with Gardzienice 1. A history of the Academy for Theatre Practices and stories and revelations concerning the academy’s premieres 2. Cheironomy, or the body that speaks 3. Song, musicality and the choir: a conversation with Marcin Mrowca 4. Against the stereotypes of professional education: an interview with Tetiana Oreshko-Muca 5. One step backwards to return: a conversation with Jan Zórawski 6. Group collaboration: a conversation with Anna Maria Dabrowska 7. An actor in trouble 8. My road to Gardzienice 9. Perseverance 10. Reciprocity 11. Dynamics PART IV: Gardzienice: critics speak 1. Pilgrimage, wandering, roving, expedition, road: Gardzienice, experience of place 2. Expeditions of Konstantin Stanislavsky and Wlodzimierz Staniewski 3. The magician of Gardzienice 4. Carmina Burana: the musical structure of myths 5. Carmina Burana: an attempt to record a performance 6. “Only what is lost can be possessed for ever”: the transcendent theatre of Gardzienice 7. Gardzienice, the Greeks and Artes Liberales 8. The Wedding. Wyspianski - Malczewski - Konieczny: towards an alliance of audience and stage 9. From, between and towards: Mysteries, Initiations, Kraków, 2000 10. Masters of performative liveness, or celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Centre of Theatre Practices Gardzienice PART V: From the archive: documents and photographs Memory, archives and archivism: the Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices

S. E. Gontarski is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University, USA. He is a theatre researcher, dramaturg, director and filmmaker who specializes in twentieth-century Irish Studies, in British, U.S. and European Modernism and in performance theory. Tomasz Wisniewski is Head of Department of Performing Arts in the Institute of English and American Studies at the University of Gdansk. He is the founder of the Between.Pomiedzy Festival and the Beckett Research Group in Gdansk. Katarzyna Kreglewska is a theatre researcher, literary scholar and translator. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Drama, Theatre and Performances at the University of Gdansk,whose academic interests focus on contemporary theatre and autobiographical traces in literature and art.